Divorcing The Billionaire On Valentine's Day

Grayson

GRAYSON

“But just two days ago, I got a call from your assistant saying that the contract has been signed and we were just coming to pick up the copy.” The busybody assistant was quick to point out. The corner of my eyes twitched with the effort it took to not respond to the i***t.

The consequences of my indulgence last night had taken their time catching up with me. My head felt it was seconds away from exploding.

I ignored him and instead leaned against the chair and analyzed the situation. I wasn’t alone in the room. The new CEO of the Black Enterprises sat on the opposite side of the long meeting table, a man not older than his early twenties and not worthy of having a seat at the table. Our previous dealings had been with his father, Carl Black.

“I agree. What’s this sudden development?” He opened his mouth to speak. I flattened the material of my pants trousers to keep my hands busy. Carl Black was better suited for knowing a good deal when he saw it, better suited for the kind of deal we were offering. His son, Raymond Black was as inexperienced as anyone could get.

It was glaringly obvious that he knew nothing about running his father’s company. He tried to be sleek by letting the assistant talk more, but he was bad even at subtlety.

“I’m afraid we cannot proceed with the contract due to some adjustments your father made last minute.” I said in the most unfazed voice I could muster. Truth be told was the company needed the deal to pull through, we needed them.

The Blacks owned and dominated the entertainment industries in Asia, a partnership with them would be a sure path to our expansion. The only problem was Carl thought it was a great idea to tie me to his doofus son for the entirety of the project.

That was not going to happen.

“What adjustments?” He asked, confirming my suspicions and heightening my worries. He didn’t know s**t about anything. He was going to run his father’s company to the ground and I wasn’t going to let him worm his way into mine.

I raised a brow at his assistant, who I could bet was supposed to inform him. So, I could easily conclude he had no experience, no brain and lacked the loyalty of his team.

Yeah, no way I was letting myself get tied to him no matter how much the company needed the contract.

“You are to spearhead the Raven project.” The assistant whose voice had overshadowed everyone else until that moment, said in a quiet voice.

“What?!” The i***t was foolish enough to yell. Yes, good impression for someone expected to trust you, genius.

Ignoring Raymond’s outburst, the assistant whose name I was yet to be told, began explaining or more accurately, stuttering a load of crap, “I agree the timing might have been too sudden, but Mr Black has everyone’s best interest at heart.”

I opened my mouth to tell him just what my interests were, but before I could, the phone vibrated, cutting my words off. Why was my mother calling? She knew I would be at the office. I silenced it.

“Well, I find that hard to believe and until it is readjusted to the way it was, I’m afraid you would have to tell Mr Black to shove his deal u-” The shrill from the phone interrupted again, even louder against the deafening silence in the room.

What does she want?! If she was calling to go on yet another shopping spree, she had another thing coming because it was the worst possible time to call.

“Yes?” I kept my voice low.

“Where are you?”

“What is it? I’m in a very important meeting and you’re interrupting.” I tried to keep my voice leveled.

“Johnny!” She stopped all of a sudden, the sound of racing steps crowded the already noisy room she was in.

“What is it? What about him?” I rose to my feet, trying and failing to keep my focus.

“He’s been rushed to the hospital. St Paul’s. I’d text you the address, get here now.” She ended the call before I could even get a word in, much less yell at her for failing at the one duty I gave her. Take care of one child!

“I’m afraid we’d have to cut this meeting short, I have an emergency to attend to.” I said to no one in particular and left the room. I might as well have thrown the deal in the trash by doing that, but it was already becoming a shitty deal. If I didn’t royally screw things up, perfect. If I did, we would just have to find some other way to expand into Asia without the Blacks. Unlikely, but what other choice was there.

I dialed my mother again but it went straight to voicemail, she was either trying to give me a heart attack or she knew exactly what she was doing.

I sighted Edwin, my driver, waiting by the black range immediately I stepped out of the building, “Take me to that address.” I told him, got into the backseat and slammed the door shut behind me.

He floored it and in minutes we were parking at the large beige building with a giant ‘St. Paul’ written just at the very top.

“You can go back to the office, find out from Tricia what they finally settled on and come back here in an hour.” I instructed and rushed into the building, fearing the worst. Fine, my mother may have succeeded in keeping me alive till that moment, but she wasn’t exactly the one who raised me, it was more the nannies than anything.

“Where is he?” I demanded the moment I caught sight of her pin-straight brown hair.

“It’s not my fault.” She rushed to say, as always never one to associate herself with any faults.

“Whose fault was it then? I left him under your care.”

“I wasn’t the one who delivered poison!” She argued.

I hissed through my teeth, “I don’t have time for your back and forth. Where’s my son?”

“I made sure he was admitted in a private suite,” I rolled my eyes, trust my mother to have misplaced priorities.

“Which?” I dragged.

“Bed 5. I can show you.” She said watching me, like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Usually I would give her a piece of my mind but after caring for the boy on my own for the past month, I knew he was no easy kid to deal with. I said nothing else to her and just followed behind her till I saw Johnny, lying unconscious. What the f**k?!

“Who was the food from?” I demanded, glaring at her. Trying with everything in me not to lash out at her.

“I-I don- I don’t know.”

“Wait let me get this straight. I leave my son in your care,” I clenched my fist for control, but my voice increased in volume with every word. I forced a harsh breath through my teeth, “I left my son in your care and you decided to order food for him and you’re telling me you don’t even know where you ordered from?! How is that even possible? Does that make any sense to you?”

“Okay maybe I didn’t order it, I just saw some food packed in the freezer and decided to microwave and give him some since he was whining about being hungry, it was getting annoying.” My sister, Lila, so gracefully blessed us with the truth.

“Lila! Don’t you know that woman was in that house before we came in!” My mother all but shrieked like it wasn’t her I put in charge. There was a reason I hadn’t called Lila to begin with.

“What woman? Know what, I don’t care. Where’s the doctor?” I rubbed at my temples to ease the building headache.

“He was here not too long ago, he said he would be back shortly, so he should be here any moment now. We should probably wait by Johnny’s bed.”

“No, I would wait by his bed. Both of you can go back to doing whatever it was that was more important than watching your grandchild and nephew.” I snapped.

“Grayson!” My mother warned, but I was over it.

“Don’t come in.” I warned them before going into the private suite.

The doctor came about two minutes after I settled in beside Johnny’s bed. An allergic reaction to the food he ate. Thankfully, he had been brought in early enough so they were able to arrest it in time. At least they did one thing right. The doctor assured me Johnny was in the clear but I still couldn’t relax because Johnny was still yet to wake up.

I leaned against the wall, a mix of guilt and regret settled in my chest. If I had tried harder to get Adeline back as his caregiver, he would be home, safe, but I had been too proud to go the extra mile. Then like a piece of rare pie, it clicked.

“Who was she?” I blurted.

“Who?” They both asked at the same time.

“The woman you said was in the house before you guys arrived.” I dragged, my patience with both of them stretched very thin.

“Who else? That gold digging wife of yours, Adeline.” Lila scoffed.

Of course. It made sense. She knew what he was allergic to so why would she leave behind a meal containing seafood. She wanted me to realize how much she knew about him, make herself seem indispensable. Well, she had another thing coming.

It was just last night she basically told Damian to tell me to go f**k myself. Not in those exact words, but same difference. I couldn’t help but wonder where the sudden sass had come from. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything too significant, the private investigator I put on her was yet to send word. That could only mean, nothing particularly interesting was going on with her. Typical. So why had she suddenly felt the need for a divorce?

Without thinking about it I dialed her number. She picked on the first ring. Of course she did, she was expecting my call, the one where I begged for her mercy and promised her extra benefits to come back. Funny.

“Grayson?” Her voice sounded different, surprised, quiet, nothing like the woman who had all but told me to shove it the last time we spoke.

“Who else were you expecting?”

“What do you want?” There it was. The snarky version.

“What I want is for you to tell me why you decided to poison my son.”